The first half of the novel had me really captivated and interested in wanting to know exactly how someone gets sucked into a cult without knowing it until it’s too late. Emily is lonely, and it isn’t until she meets members of the Kingdom, does she finally feels like she belongs. I know a lot of people mention the fact that the other half of the book takes place in Italy as being interesting, but honestly, the characters barely come into contact with any Italians and stay cooped up in an old villa the whole time, that they might as well have been anywhere in the world, the location didn’t really matter.

Now, for the cult leader, we only got to meet him once and we don’t know much about him at all. In fact, we don’t even know if he’s the one spinning the lies or if it’s his followers as we never see him again. Secondly, two people end up dead in this novel and we don’t ever get full closure about them as their deaths are classified as accidental (yet the circumstances are so fishy that the reader knows it was murder but we can only suspect who it is but never get a definite answer).

The last portion of the book was the least interesting to me. Without the cult and the cult members with her, Emily was a dull character.

I do appreciate the book for being a cautionary message to teenagers facing living alone for the very first time and trying to fit in and thus should be wary of the people they befriend. I remember seeing a lot of Christian based groups in college trying to recruit more members (and maybe some of these groups are cults) but I never got involved as I try to steer clear of people who seem unhinged when it comes to religion.

I do recommend the book and maybe you may enjoy it more than I did, but I was left with a bitter taste since none of my questions never got answered and I don’t know if that was due to the author trying to keep it a mystery or if was due to lazy writing. Either way, it didn’t bond well with me.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atheneum Books for Young Readers for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

A lonely college freshman in the 90s falls in with a Christian cult whose methods of manipulation and intimidation become increasingly dangerous over the course of a mission trip to Italy. A thoroughly engrossing, intense psychological thriller. I'll admit I have a bit of a fascination with cults, but most of what I've read comes from nonfiction books (or podcasts). It was neat to read a piece of YA fiction exploring similar topics. Especially since the author's interest in the subject came from an incident I found pretty fascinating in its own right--but maybe that's partially just because I was excited to realize this book is by a fellow writer from Arkansas. I highly recommend reading through the Author's Note at the end (even if you normally don't) for this reason.

The last 15% of the book does slow down a good bit which I struggled with briefly, but honestly I like that this book deals with the aftermath and recovery after leaving a cult in addition to what it's like falling into one. A really great read for thriller fans and anyone with a fascination with cults.

What I Liked:

This is college YA done right. It’s really quite sad that in this year of 2020, we still are experiencing a shortage of crossover YA books. 18-21 should, by all intents and purposes, still be considered young adult, because you’re not fully adulting yet. Those Who Prey had a typical-YA thriller feel to it, while also being set during freshman year, which I appreciated so darn much.
The religious cult luring is scarily convincing. Sometimes, I have a difficult time putting myself in the character’s shoes and thinking that I couldn’t possibly fall into the traps that they did. However, it quite frankly terrified me how realistic a situation like this could be. It almost makes me feel fortunate that I’m doing online college! 😉 (JK, online college is SO HARD)
The storyline is suspenseful and intriguing. From page one, I was pretty much solidly addicted to Those Who Prey. While there are definite trigger warnings for things like animal and people murder that readers should be aware of, I found it slightly tamer than other thriller books while also being incredibly addictive and hard to put down.
The title is a play on words. Something that many people may not have realized is that “Those Who PREY” is a knock-off on the phrase “Those Who PRAY” because The Kingdom is a religious cult that both PRAYS and PREYs. And don’t ask me why, but this really please me a lot, okay?
What I . . . Didn’t:

It was a little difficult to relate to Emily. Unfortunately, I think this has a lot to do with Emily being lost, and not knowing much about herself (which in turn allows her to fall right into The Kingdom’s trap). However, I do think even a few additional details to make her a little less plain of a character would have been nice. 🙂
Overall

Those Who Prey is a suspenseful college YA thriller that will keep you on your toes, while also portraying the dark and dangerous side to the world of cults in vivid color. I highly recommend this book for fans of Sadie and Karen M. McManus, and am looking forward to reading more of Jennifer Moffett’s work!

“After you leave it, it feels like you’re lost, like someone led you into the depths of a labyrinth without a map, and then abandoned you to find your way out.”

What a rollercoaster ride! Reading Those Who Prey was such an emotional circus. The statement “I didn’t know what I signed up for” is an understatement.

It’s important point out that this book is set in the 90’s. Those Who Prey is the story of Emily. Emily a college student, she found herself isolated and having difficulty connecting or finding any person to be her friend or even to just hang out with. One day, she met someone from a religious group called The Kingdom. And this is how her life changed forever.

Those Who Prey pretty much touches every bit and layers of “HOW does someone get involve in a cult and WHY is it so difficult for them to JUST leave” The book is so haunting and excellently researched. The psychological effect of the story to readers is terrifying and its also equally horrifying when you realize that this actullay happens in REAL LIFE. There are people out there who are seemingly nice but only has the intention of manipulating you. Although what I love about Those Who Prey is that it gave us an idea and the perspective that those “people” can just be victims themselves and that they also have their own reasons for being involved in the said cult.

I am a fan of our narrator that can be unreliable at times and her narration was truly something that you can feel. How her thought worked when she was digesting information, whether honest to god truths or manipulation, felt real and even at times, relatable. You can’t help but also question yourself if you were in her situation.

Now, I did have some minor concerns and thats why I wasn’t able to rate the book 3 stars. When we’re reaching the, what I believe as the highlight of the story, it just fell flat and very anticlimactic for me. The author really did a great job with the mysterious and thrilling atmosphere of the book but I really wished the particular “highlight” was more fleshed out or at least given more chapter for the readers to understand. Our narrator can be unreliable at times and this was proven but this was a vital scene from the story and I was left asking for more explanation.

In conclusion though, I would still recommend Those Who Prey as I feel how relevant this book can be. This is a haunting and a terrifyingly authentic perspective of how cult works and a real narrative of how SOME people can take religion TOO FAR. With a very readable writing and soul-stirring protagonist, Those Who Prey will leave you haunted and gripping. Definitely worth adding to your shelves!

Book TW: murder, grooming, eating disorder (bulimia), suicide.

i really enjoyed this!! i don't usually read a lot of mystery/thriller, but this one sounded so intriguing and i'm really glad I decided to request it!

i think my favorite aspect of this book was the writing style, because i was absolutely hooked from the beginning. i read most of this book in one sitting, and i was eagerly anticipating and trying to predict what was going to happen next. i think this book did a fantastic job at exploring cults and how they recruit and manipulate their victims.

i think my only complaint is that we didn't really get a strong sense of who emily is as a person. we know certain things about her past and her family, and we can see how she would be an easy victim for a cult because of her loneliness, but that's really all i can say about her character. and obviously we see the aftermath of what escaping from a cult is like and the psychological toll that has on a person, but it still doesn't give much of who she is.

i would definitely recommend this!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Those Who Prey – I had never read a book about cults before and have never been a big fan of organized religion. However, the idea of a book about a girl whose loneliness leads her to fall for the alure of a cult (or a church as it’s disguised) was enough to make me sign up for this blog tour, and I’m so, so grateful that I did.

The pacing of this book was phenomenal – from the first pages I was hooked and I ended up reading this book in only two sittings. The author got straight to the meat of the story – she didn’t spend a ton of time on backstory and used time jumps in a way that really helped to focus on the action. I also loved the style of this book – the chapters were framed around the steps to recruit someone to a cult – the steps that were being taken to recruit Emily. There were also terms defined for what she was experiencing especially as things got more intense.

As far as characters go – Emily was by far my favorite. She was lonely in a very believable way and made it very easy to see how someone (especially in the 90s before social media and widespread internet) could fall for the appeal of a cult. She was also an inherently forgivable character – because it was easy to see how and why she fell in with this crowd, it was simple to root for her to escape before it was too late. She was also very, very realistic – I think anyone who has gone to college alone can relate to some degree the loneliness and isolation she felt on campus.

Even the cult members who indoctrinated Emily were sympathetic – take Heather for example. Heather was the first person to really push the Kingdom on Emily – she helped with her bible studies, provided spiritual guidance and acted like a best friend. Naturally, as someone recruiting for a cult, these things were done with nefarious intent, but it was still easy to feel for her. She was just as trapped in the situation as Emily was, if not more so. As a reader, it was easy to root for her to see the light and break free of the Kingdom’s grasp.

Those Who Prey was a topsy turvy, fast paced account of a girl blindly trusting strangers and being so desperate for companionship that she would turn a blind eye to the obvious red flags of the situation she was in. This book will make you realize just how easily people fall into cults and how challenging it is to escape. 5/5

"Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object." -Albert Camus

The second I stumbled across the synopsis of this book I knew that I had to read it. As a child of the 90's who grew up in the "Bible Belt" of the US (for my international friends, this would be the southeast), I have witnessed and experienced the kind of pressures that this books delves into, and while the story is fictional, the research and experience that went into exploring this book in a way that other people can relate to is done exceptionally well. I'd like to point out, before we get in too deep, that the author clarifies that this is not a jab at any particular religion, simply an example of how cults can take religious doctrine of any kind and manipulate it to their advantage. Here's a direct quote from Moffett's afterward:

"High-pressure groups are defined as "cults" by their manipulative and abusive behavior, regardless of which particular doctrine they claim to follow... As Those Who Prey shows, any doctrine can be twisted to fit any motive."

Now, on to the book! I think it's important to be upfront that this novel approaches the cult aspect in a different way than I've experienced before. Various steps are listed as chapter headers, showing what instructions these members follow to try and recruit new "disciples", which are clearly people that are isolated, lonely, and desperately looking for acceptance. Each part of this story shows how easily anyone could fall prey to these types of predators. The Sadie meets The Girls comparison is spot on, and while this book is heavily character driven, I simply couldn't put it down due to the compulsive nature of the gritty, growing sense of dread.

I'd really like to keep this review as brief as possible, and for you to go in blind if you can, but if you're worried about personal triggers I've included as many as I can remember in a spoiler tag at the end of this review for your convenience. Perhaps the reason that this wasn't "just another trendy book about cults" was the respectful approach and the relatable emotional investment for me as a reader. Whether you're looking for a fictional book that includes numerous nuggets of truth about this subject, or simply an entertaining, relevant YA book to ride out the rest of 2020 with, you can't go wrong by choosing to spend your time with this gem.

Content Warnings: *Grooming and recruiting for cult purposes, cult ritualistic practices, murder by overdose, murder by snake venom, eating disorder (bulimia), forced food restriction and sleep deprivation, alcohol and drug abuse, disturbing death of an animal, suicide, and a scene mentioning conversion therapy.

Those Who Prey follows the story of Emily, who, being far away from home and desperate for friends, unknowingly ends up joining a Biblical cult. What ensues from there on is mystery and madness.

Well, I honestly had no expectations going into the book, what with this being my first foray into the world of cult fiction and all. However, this book ended up being a welcome surprise!

I really liked the way this book answered the age old question of ‘How do people even get themselves into cults?!‘ The way the author describes the entire scenario from Emily’s perspective helps us understand that it isn’t always black and white; that to an outsider it might just seem normal enough until it somehow isn’t. Emily’s character is also quite well developed, and her fears and ambitions quite leap off the page.

Though I was very intrigued by the premise and the initial arc of the plot, I did feel like the second arc left a lot of unanswered questions. Though I understand the reason why, I did feel like it diminished the satisfaction of finishing the book. Also, I feel like a lot of the secondary characters were not well developed; most of them blended into one another as the book went on. I knew who the good guys were and who the bad guys were- I didn’t notice any difference between any of the good guys or the bad guys.

In a nutshell, I’d like to say that if you’re looking for a complicated mystery with many layers and a strong romance, this might not be the book for you. However, if you’re looking for a book about cults and how they have the power to subtly twist your whole life, you will definitely enjoy this book. I give it 3.5 stars!

Those who Prey was an alluring psychological thriller. I enjoyed getting to see the entire cult process from being recruited to the after-effects it leaves on members and former members. I also thought Moffett did a great job at showing how easy it can be to fall into a cult’s traps. With the way that Emily was recruited, I could imagine myself falling for the same things, especially my first year on campus 13 hours away from home. It really made it easy to empathize with Emily and her desire for connections with other people.

By the end of chapter 1, I knew this story was going to be good. Between Julia’s article, the initial meeting between Josh and Emily, and the description of Emily’s loneliness that made me feel as if I already understood her character, I couldn’t wait to keep reading. And Moffett continued to up the stakes in each part of the book leaving you ready to find out what happens in the next part. Things really dialed up to 10 as you continued to read, and there were a lot of hardcore, intense scenes that showed how harmful the cult was the longer you were in it.

I really liked the formatting of the book also. The article tidbits gave you insight into the plot and built up anticipation. And the chapter names and terms at the beginning of the chapters really set the story. The characters were one of the best parts, and I enjoyed reading about Emily, Andrew, Josh, and Kara.

Overall, Those who Prey really held my attention and gave me the satisfying ending I needed. Although cults are a popular topic, this book really felt like a fresh take on the subject. I would definitely recommend it if you want to read more about the intersection between cults and young people. And I think the author’s note really tied the whole book together with her personal history on the subject and what she wanted readers to get from the book.

We’ve got a book about cults people! Yes, I know it’s highly disturbing material, but I am always drawn to books on cults – they are incredibly equal parts fascinating and horrifying to me. I had Those Who Prey on my radar for awhile now, the second I heard about it, I put it on my most anticipated list for 2020. I had a feeling I would love this book and I am excited to say, I was right and this is likely to hit my top ten for 2020.

Those Who Prey centers around a young girl (Emily) who is in her first year at University, away from home and not really fitting in when she is approached by a young guy (Josh) that brings her into his friend group. Emily has become really isolated since moving away to school and when she is invited to this instant friend group, she is eager to please and keep her friends happy. They quickly invite her to a Bible study and from there she is invited to be a study partner with one of the girls from the religious sect referred to as The Kingdom. It doesn’t take long at all before Emily is full on committed to all her new friends, her budding romance with one of the members and, of course, The Kingdom.

Most of the YA books that I’ve read that have centered around cults, usually start with the main character already in the cult. Usually brought up in it. What I really liked about Those Who Prey is that it starts at the beginning with an intelligent young adult girl at the beginning and you see exactly how she is sucked in and manipulated into becoming part or something that from the outside seems ludacris and toxic. I also loved that at the beginning of many of the sections there are little descriptions on the step-by-step process of what people like the ones in The Kingdom do to secure that their members are fully in and giving up more and more of their lives to the church, the deeper they go.

Our main character, Emily is incredibly relatable. She comes from a decent family, but has a damaged relationship with her father since her mother died. Emily doesn’t have a strange or uncommon upbringing – yes, she is lonely and depressed but it’s something that many of us go through at some point in our lives. That is what makes this story so damn terrifying, it means the average person can be pulled into something so twisted and toxic. If you’re like me, you will be incredibly frustrated through-out this book. It was maddening sometimes watching Emily make the choices she was making but at the same time, it was so authentic in how everything was written. I could completely see how someone would want to be part of something that felt so positive and loving at first. Particular if that is something you’ve been missing in your life for awhile.

I don’t want to go into the want to go into too much detail about this story because it is a does have a mystery aspect to the story and watching all the pieces unravel is half the fun. I will say that Emily does go on a mission with The Kingdom to another country and shit gets real. We start to see a much scarier side almost immediately when they are completely reliant on The Kingdom.

There is a lot of manipulation and gaslighting in this story, so if you are not in a good mental space and that might trigger you – make sure you proceed with caution. It’s probably best to go into this one in a good head space. A lot of people are comparing this book to Sadie by Courtney Summers and I would say that is pretty accurate but I think this story a little less bleak. There are good moments and there is hope in this story. I would highly recommend checking this one out if it sounds like your thing – it ‘s a very fast read.

Wow guys, true embarrassing story, I was today years old when I realized what a clever play on words the title is. Because this book is about people who prey but under the guise of people who pray. Clever! (Not me, I am clearly zero percent clever.) I have always been incredibly fascinated with cults, and even more so with the psychology of them. Those Who Prey delves deep into how a person can fall into such a situation, and I loved that, frankly.

My biggest issue with the book is one that I am actually hesitant to even put out as a negative, and that is that I didn’t really get much of a sense of who Emily is as a person. The problem with that of course is that I felt a bit less connected to her. But on the flip side, I think that Emily had to be lost, as a person, and not really have a sense of who she was herself in order to make the story work. So I won’t say it’s a negative, I’ll say it’s… a necessary by-product? Great, let’s move on to the good stuff!

Obviously, we the reader know from the start what Emily does not: this group (“The Kingdom”, as they dub themselves) is bad news. But when Emily, who is feeling incredibly lost and alone at college far away from home (and wow could I relate to that), is approached and befriended by some peers who happen to attend what she thinks is a local church, she obviously gravitates to them. In truth, I think it’s easy to tell that their befriending Emily was no happy accident, that they could sense her loneliness, her need to belong, and she seemed a good target, but I digress.

When she’s given the “honor” of attending a mission trip in Europe, of course she jumps at the chance. She finally feels like she belongs somewhere, and seriously, who is turning down a summer in Europe, right? And yet again, the reader is privy to the red flags, but Emily is being hoodwinked the entire way. I’ll not say much more about the plot from here, because it gets pretty intense, but know that things really pick up at this point. Emily no longer has a safety net, and The Kingdom is taking full advantage. The mission trip is definitely not as it seems, and Emily is beginning to see that The Kingdom isn’t either. She has no idea who she can trust- her roommate? Her friends? Her budding love interest? Anyone? It becomes quite a wild ride, with a gorgeous (but scary) European backdrop.

Bottom Line: An intense look at how cults can suck an otherwise reasonable person into their grip, with a lot of mystery and mayhem included!

I am so into cult books right now, it isn't even funny. This one did not disappoint.

Emily is pretty alone in college. No friends. Then one day, a boy - who happens to be very cute - noticed her. He invited her to hang out with him and his friends. Who, oh, by the way, happen to be in a cult. Emily joins, not really realizing it's a cult. She thinks it's just a super religious organization. But who care? She has friends now!

She goes on a mission trip out of the country. Things go awry. Will she get back with her life?

The characters were all pretty likeable. At the beginning, I had some clues they were part of a cult, but if I were in Emily's shoes I may not have realized it. I loved the mystery of the story. I couldn't figure out how the victim ended up dead. I was worried about Emily the entire time.

If you are a fan of cult books, definitely check this one out!

As a high school student, I participated in a religious retreat that people jokingly called a cult. After reading this book and reflecting on my experience, the jokes hit a little too close to home.

The protagonist, Emily, finds herself without any friends, thousands of miles from home during her freshman year of college. She’s quickly adopted into the Kingdom, a group of students belonging to a strict Christian religion. Thrilled that she finally has friends, Emily overlooks some pretty egregious behavior from those in the Kingdom. But everything is not what it seems, and the Kingdom might just push Emily past her breaking point.

This book is incredibly haunting. The author does an excellent job of showcasing how a few bad people can take religion and spirituality too far, morphing it into something manipulative, sick and twisted. It forced me to reflect on some of my own religious experiences, questioning if any of the tactics used to sway Emily had ever been used on me.

That being said, I thought the book’s climax was jumbled and confusing, leaving me to question what really happened; I would have liked for it to be laid out more clearly (though I understand there was an unreliable narrator). At times, it felt like the story was dragging … I think it certainly could have been told in fewer pages to better hold my attention.

Overall, though, it was a solid read, and I enjoyed this look into the world of a member of a cult.

Set in the 1990's, Those Who Prey follows Emily, a shy girl who finds that going to college in Boston isn't quite what she expected it to be. Emily feels very lonely at college, she hasn't found her place or any real friends. Then, she is found by a group called The Kingdom. The Kingdom provides her with friends and a purpose and suddenly she doesn't feel quite so alone. Emily begins to dedicate all her time to the Kingdom, skipping classes and even volunteering to go on a mission trip to Italy.

However, things take a dark turn when the trip isn't what Emily thought it would be. She is stripped of her passport and money and cut off from her family back home. The Kingdom's practises become increasingly manipulative and dangerous and Emily realises that she needs to get out as soon as she can.

Since studying sociology in school, i've always had a morbid fascination with cults and how they recruit their members. So when I heard about this book, I was instantly intrigued. I've never read any YA novel about this topic before.

I found the first section of this book really interesting. I could feel Emily slowly getting drawn into the cult and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I kept hoping that she would realise that this was bad and get out, but obviously this didn't happen.

The chapter headings in this book also added a lot to the story, in my opinion. They give you real insight into how the cult was drawing in and manipulating its members. It made Emily's experience even more disturbing and chilling to read.

One thing that really stood out to me in this book was the main character, Emily. I felt like I really understood her thoughts and motives. It made it easy to understand why she would get drawn in to such a fanatical group and be willing to leave behind everything for them.

There is also a section near the end of this book that deals with the healing process after getting out of a cult. This part was something I really enjoyed reading about and it was great to see the characters finally overcome the long-lasting control that the group had over them.

This book is also really thrilling! Throughout the book you never know who you can trust! Every character seems to have dark secrets and it kept me intrigued until the very end.

However, one problem I had with this book was that there were lots of things that were left unresolved at the end. I was left with quite a lot of questions that I think should have been answered in this book. I think the ending was a little bit rushed and some things could have been rounded off a little better.

Overall, if you have any interest in cults and how people end up joining them then I think you will definitely enjoy this book. This book definitely explores this difficult topic in a realistic and interesting way and it will keep you hooked throughout.

4 STARS


When Emily's roommate leaves campus for the second semester of freshman year, her world gets lonely.


Sure, she and Sadie weren't the best of friends, but Sadie was someone in a place where Emily had no one. Miles from her family back in Georgia, and stuck facing an unwelcome loneliness ahead, Emily finds herself drifting along, simply going through the motions.

But then she meets a small group of students part of a larger organization called the Kingdom, and everything changes. Suddenly, Emily has friends and a purpose, and a chance to do something for the world at large. It's everything she thought she needed, and proof that she was right to leave her family behind for life in Boston.

At least, she believes that until she goes to Italy with the Kingdom in the summer of 1994. Until she starts to have her doubts.

Until someone winds up dead.


"They made me feel loved. And for most of us, that's enough."


Those Who Prey does a truly exceptional job of cutting to the core of cult activity. From the start, you know Emily is tumbling in far too over her head, and you pity her, because the Kingdom is giving her everything she craves. With them, she thinks she can find love and friendship and acceptance, not to mention opportunities to better serve the world around her. It's a dream come true after her loneliness in the dorms, and though she doesn't realize it then, she's the exact kind of target cults thrive on.

From the outset, it's clear that the Kingdom is a cult. We as readers aren't in Emily's position, and this outside perspective creates so much sympathy for her. Too caught up in filling holes in her heart, she doesn't realize the implications of the Kingdom's mission. It doesn't occur to her that the Kingdom demands total control over its members, or that that level of control is a bad thing. And the idea that the Kingdom makes people suffer, when all they've done is make her life in Boston so much better? That can't be! 

And what a hell of a story this makes, watching Emily fall into the Kingdom's trap only to find herself desperate to escape it.


Of course, there are plot issues that gave me some pause.


It wasn't anything to do with the characters, thank goodness. They're remarkably well-fleshed out for a cast that is by and large devoted to a massive religious cult. You can see what makes them so eager to belong, so desperate to prove themselves to an organization that views them as little more than tools in religious conquest. 

What I did have a little trouble with was the plot. For the most part, it moves at a good clip, steadily tracking Emily's descent into the Kingdom, and giving a clear sense of the steps and tactics cults use to pull their victims in closer and closer to the core. However, I found that the final quarter of the book or so rushes ahead and doesn't always offer resolution in a satisfying way.

On the one hand, Those Who Prey is about the many abuses of power cults commit against their victims, and how disorienting they make life even after someone escapes. On the other hand, though, I so much wish the confusion of the final quarter had been replaced with a touch more clarity. I still have questions about one of the interns, who claims to know enough to blow the organization apart, but doesn't seem ready to act on it yet. And I want to know what happens after Italy, especially to the cult as a whole. There's a sense of incompleteness to it all that both makes sense given Emily's aversion to reliving her experiences with the Kingdom, and frustrates because I want conclusion as a reader.


If cult books are your thing, and you want to see their sinister underside in 1994, Those Who Prey might be your kind of book.


And you won't have to wait long to read it, either! Those Who Prey hits shelves on November 10th, which is only a week away! It's eerie and unsettling to the last, and I have to recommend it if you can stomach the contents. Sure, it's about a cult and its dangers, but it's also about a girl looking to feel valued again. To feel human.

It's such a simple desire. And that's enough for the Kingdom to work with.


CW: drug use, addiction, underage drinking, loss of a loved one, homophobia, implied disordered eating, smoking, nudity, animal death, suicide, violence, non-graphic sex scene


[This review will go live on Hail & Well Read at 10am EST on 11/2/20.]

Hmm. This was an interesting one - I felt the conflict wrapped up too early in the story, leaving an awkward third act that felt anticlimatic in comparison to the first two-thirds, but I enjoyed Emily's voice and found myself intrigued by her story. Recommended for fans of mysteries/thrillers and those who enjoy a good cult book.

This was an intriguing book from beginning to end. The author did an amazing job in finding a salacious topic that many are curious about. How does one end up in a cult.It was interesting to experience it first hand. What was interesting was that even in the end The main character didn't want to call it joining a cult. Perhaps most cult members never even realize that is what they have joined. I loved the choice of storytelling jumping from newspaper excerpts to the main character's experience as it develops. It is true that a lot of the side characters were not developed. The story at times did feel rushed. Most importantly though at the end of the story as the reader you feel relieved. You feel like you experienced the edge and somehow are still safe at the comfort of your home. Wonderful read!

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing for the advanced copy.

Definitely a super interesting book. I really like thrillers, and I especially like them when they're executed well. Jennifer Moffett did that! Brilliant read, and I can't wait to purchase.

I am a big thriller fan and as someone who did one of their senior theses in college on cults, this was a book I had to read. Cults have always fascinated me and to read from the perspective of a college student, alone in a new state, I was really interested. I thought the book was well thought out and really interesting, although the format seemed to change halfway through? Part I was formatted differently from the other three parts and it threw me off a little bit, but only because I liked how the other three parts were formatted.

One thing I liked about this book was that it showed how normal an organization can appear to people. People don't join cults. They don't walk into the cult headquarters and say "This is a cult? Cool! I've always wanted to join one." They are groups that people identify with or give them access to supportive friends and family that use manipulation and other horrible tactics to keep people from leaving. The whole motivation behind cults is to recruit new members who devote their time to their cause and line the pockets of the people in charge. Kind of like a business, but more exploitive, harder to leave, and sometimes deadly.

From the author's note, it appears that the author herself was part of a cult at one point in her life and I can see that experience through this story. I really enjoyed this book and I think it's a great way to talk about cults and education young adults on how they work. Especially since a lot of them do target young people who are lonely or who have moved to a new place.

Overall, really great book that made me feel sad, since this is something people go through all the time. One thing I did have an issue with though, was that the climax of the story happened very soon and the ending seemed to drag because of it. I felt like the ending could have been a lot shorter and we could have experience more in Italy. But I still like how it turned out overall. Thanks to Turn the Pages tour and Simon Teen for providing an ARC for me!

“But that’s the thing. When you’re in the struggle, there is no possible end—it’s just a never-ending loop of unattainable demands. When you’re living it, you can’t see which way is up. And after you leave, it feels like you’re lost, like someone led you into the depths of a labyrinth without a map, and then abandoned you to find your way out.”

This is a book for anyone who has ever said “I would never be tricked into joining a cult” and wondered how on earth could anyone be ever dragged into a cult willingly. Those Who Prey is, in a few words, a book that explains everything about cults, from a victim’s perspective.

Making use of a straightforward, almost aseptic prose, Jennifer Moffett does not beat about the bush with her story. Straight to the point, the author is quite determined to disclose the inner workings of cults: how they lure people in, how they manipulate victims into believing everything they say, and even how their practices, years later, can still affect the people who manage to escape and return to their normal lives.

In order to do so, Moffett establishes a very clear opposition between two subtle structural elements of the novel: the epigraphs at the end of every chapter and the narrative voice. The former consists on small sentences that describe the steps and techniques cults follow in order to recruit and manipulate new members; thus, through these small pieces of information, the reader is able to pinpoint the mechanisms that The Kingdom follows when trying to trick Emily, the protagonist. The narration, however, is told from Emily’s first-person voice, and that is where the contrast is created. By putting the two together, the reader understands how visible, yet subtle the recruiting process of cults is. They are tricky, manipulative, and appear to be innocent enough to go unnoticed…unless you know what is going on, that is. Moffett’s narrative structure is definitely brilliant, and a true eye-opener for those who dismiss how insidiously powerful manipulation is.

Another very particular characteristic within the structure itself of the novel are the fragments of “Interviews for Emily X” an article released sometime after the events told in the narration. Thus, the author makes the most of foreshadowing to create an utterly enthralling pace; by giving away the smallest pieces of information just at the right times. This tension is kept brilliantly throughout most of the novel, but, sadly, as the buildup was so strong, once the storyline reaches its climax, its grip just…deflates. The plot goes a bit in circles, making the reader lose their focus, and the explanations given about the cult are just not enough. For the most part of the narration, the author plays with the tension between the creepy and the disturbing, leading the reader to believe the members of the cult to be total monsters. For instance, these will definitely be quite triggering for most, but the author includes veiled homophobic or slut-shamming remarks, as well as some cases of eating-disorder encouragement. These are extremely elusive, yet they raise the alarm on the reader’s mind; showcasing the threatening aura behind The Kingdom just subtly enough to fear for the main character’s wellbeing once she uncovers the madness behind an apparently peaceful religious group. As a result, as the reader expects the worse-case scenario, the last devious actions of The Kingdom almost feel as if they do not correlate with the previous actions of its members. In addition, the final explanations seem a bit lacking, as if there were much more to uncover about the leaders of The Kingdom and their motivations that are not explained in enough depth for readers to fully understand their hidden motivations.

In any case, Moffatt does a great job at portraying how subtly cults work their way into people’s lives. Gaslighting, grooming, and a thousand examples of emotional manipulation are displayed in Those Who Prey, and the novel becomes a great exercise in identifying these behaviours. Undoubtedly, this piece of literature is a very illustrative example of how cults take advantage of lonely people, who just want a place to belong. They trick these innocent people into doing whatever they need them to do and, as soon as they stop being useful, they discard them, as they never truly cared about their wellbeing. Furthermore, Those Who Prey pays especial attention to the arduous recovery process of a cult victim. As mentioned in the beginning of this review, there is no doubt that Jennifer Moffett did an incredibly meticulous research for the writing of the novel, and it pays up beautifully. The result is an astonishing, almost didactic guide on cults, psychological manipulation, and emotional survival.

Those Who Prey is definitely a great novel for those who enjoy a good mystery, where foreshadowing plays the main role in the narration of the story. Dive head first into Jennifer Moffett’s gripping tale of manipulation and try and see whether you’d be strong-willed enough to avoid the mind games of The Kingdom. The answer might definitely surprise you. We personally believe that no one is safe. Not even sweet, innocent Emily X.